The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for dispensing viscous materials, and more particularly, to an automated method and apparatus for rapid precision dispensing of minute amounts of adhesives, solder paste, and other flowable materials in predetermined patterns at preselected locations on printed circuit boards and other substrates.
In the manufacture of electronic systems and equipment, it is frequently necessary to apply small amounts of viscous or flowable materials onto circuit boards and other substrates. Such materials may include adhesives, solder paste, epoxy, cyanoacrylates, RTV, silicones, solder mask, surface mount adhesive flux, grease, oil, encapsulants, potting compounds, bonding fluids and inks. These materials are often dispensed from a syringe onto a preselected area. Heretofore this type of dispensing has been done manually for small jobs and repairs. Dispensing control units have been commercially available that pneumatically actuate a syringe under foot pedal control. This approach is too tedious and costly to be used on any significant size of production run. More recently, automated systems have been sold by ASYMTEK of Carlsbad, Calif. under the trademark AUTOMOVE (400 Series) for dispensing viscous materials. They have consisted of a benchtop X-Y positioner for carrying and guiding a variety of dispensing heads. The motions required must be programmed via an IBM-PC compatible computer. Menu-driven software is provided for programming the desired movements.
It would be desirable to provide a precision automated viscous material dispenser that could be more easily programmed for different jobs without requiring a separate computer and a skilled programmer.